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Branislav Malinovic from Bosnia &
Herzegovina scored the biggest
victory of his career on Saturday,
November 11, and is the new World
Boxing Federation (WBF)
International Middleweight champion.
In Montceau-Les-Mines, France,
28-year-old Malinovic impressively
edged local hero Mickael Lacombe by
split decision after ten hard rounds
to win the vacant title.
The fight started at a high pace
with both boxers trading,
toe-to-toe, but Malinovic soon found
out that he had most success boxing
off the back-foot as Lacombe charged
forward.
The visitor was especially effective
with his work to the body, while
Lacombe slipped most of the
head-shots and fired back with some
hard hooks, even hurting Malinovic
on a couple of occasions.
Malinovic was clearly the busier man
and clearly out-worked Lacombe, and
it was rewarded by judges Bruno
Dubois and Hugues Hellebaut who saw
him as the winner by 97-93 and 97-94
scores. Judge Marc Lemiere had
Lacombe ahead by 96-94.
The new WBF champion improved his
professional record to 18-9-2 (6).
Lacombe (37) drops to 13-8-1 (7).
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